When communicating data signals over power lines, the data signals are transmitted and received at various power line communication devices that communicate over medium voltage (MV) power lines and/or low voltage (LV) power lines. Some of these devices include MV repeaters, external LV repeaters, internal LV repeaters, customer power line modems (or other customer premise equipment), bypass devices, backhaul devices and other power line communication devices.
In some power line communication devices, such as those used in a time division multiple access system, the device must transmit and receive using the same or overlapping frequency bands. Such power line communication devices typically include a transmit/receive switch circuit to transition between a transmit operation and a receive operation, which transition often may need to be accomplished quickly. Further, to provide high-speed communications, many such devices must use broadband communications (as opposed to narrowband), wherein a relatively wide range of frequencies are used to communicate information. Consequently, the transmit/receive switch circuits used in the devices of many power lines communication systems must be compatible with broadband communications.
Further, a power line communication system (PLCS) may include thousands or tens of thousands of communications devices, many of which may include one or more transmit/receive switch circuits. Additionally, because the number of the components will usually affect the complexity, reliability, and cost of the transmit/receive switch, high part count transmit/receive switch circuits may increase the overall cost and reduce the overall reliability of the PLCS. Additionally, the power consumed by the transmit/receive switch circuit may impact the overall cost to operate the PLCS. Thus, there is a need for a low cost, low power, reliable transmit/receive circuit for use in power line communication devices. One or more of these features may be provided by one or more embodiments of the present invention.